The parish
priest of Cisterna in Latina,Don Livio
Fabiani caused a bit of sensation with his words at the funeral of the two
children killed by their father.

Yet perhaps
– for Catholics – the homily of Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, Archbishop of
Florence, at the funeral of the Fiorentina’s Captain, Davide Astori, who died
two Sundays ago of a heart attack, ought to be a source of more amazement.

These two
tragedies have made us face sudden death, the eruption of evil and the suffering
of the innocents. We are all dumbstruck. The words “waste and void” repeated by Thomas
S. Eliot in his poem describe our hearts in these situations.

The Holy Fire is lit outside the church's back door, from which it is a short processionthrough the streets of the City of London to the church's front door.

This Holy Week in London, a rare opportunity to experience one of the oldest services in the Catholic Church along with a feast of sacred music rarely sung in its proper context.

Beginning on ‘Spy Wednesday’ with the ancient office of Tenebrae, The Latin Mass Society will be celebrating Holy Week with a wealth of traditional Latin liturgy at St. Mary Moorfields in the heart of the City of London.This year’s Triduum celebration will be directed by professional musician and classical pianist, Matthew Schellhorn with his group ‘Cantus Magnus.’

Matthew Schellhorn, the LMS Director of Music for London, said:

“It is once again a great pleasure to be making the musical preparations for the Latin Mass Society’s flagship celebration of the Sacred Triduum in the Archdiocese of Westminster.

“Music by Franco-Flemish renaissance Orlande de Lassus (1532–94) will enhance the Office of Tenebrae, which will be particularly special with not only the haunting four-part Responseries but also the great five-part Lamentations of Jeremiah. These glorious masterpieces, date from the 1580s.

They therefore picked up stones to cast at him; but Jesus hid himself and went out from the temple. (John: 8:58-59)

Where did he go? Jesus hid himself. Hide and go seek? That children’s game that has its roots in the mysterious state of hiddenness and the triumph of “I found you!” It is in that statement of triumph that the mystery has been solved. I know where you are . The unknown has been conquered, the gnarly mystery of not knowing where you are has been solved. The mystery is evaporated.

In Summa Theologiae III, q. 85, a. 5, St. Thomas Aquinas writes that
there are six principles of penance. These principles of penance, according to
Aquinas, are the “acts whereby in penance we co-operate with God operating”
(III, q. 85, a. 5, corpus). Reflecting
on these principles during the season of Lent can be helpful for us as we
prepare for the Holy Triduum.

How have we been using our time
during this Lent? Have we been truly sorry for our sins, or are we wasting our
time idly pursuing worldly ends and goals? How diligently have we been purging
ourselves of earthly attachments, bad habits, and sinful behaviors? Have we
been striving to become closer to God in prayer? These are the questions to ask
ourselves as we read and reflect upon the six principles offered by Aquinas.

First, a note on penance in
general: in I-II, q. 113, a. 5, Thomas writes that sadness is a sign of love.
Penance is sadness over our sins; we repent over the wrong that we have
committed, and we resolve not to commit the same sins again. Thus, when we are
sad over our sins, we should ultimately be sad because of offending God who is
Love, who loved us so much that He suffered and died for us on the Cross.

The Vatican admitted Thursday that it altered a photo sent to the media of a letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI about Pope Francis. The manipulation changed the meaning of the image in a way that violated photojournalist industry standards.

I recently read Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo's interview in the National Catholic Register. I initially wanted to ignore his statements, like I did with other Chinese "experts". However, these past few months, the Church in China received "seismic tremors" too strong to ignore.

Considering the gravity of the matter, I thought I would share my humble musings with Rorate Caeli readers.

Surprise surprise! We have another Chinese "expert" talking about the Church in China. Mind you, an "expert" who doesn't speak Chinese, doesn't understand Chinese culture, and whose experience of China is visiting government-approved places. (What I like to call "tourist traps".) How absurd is that? It's like an Argentinian saying he's an expert on the United States because he once visited Jacksonville, Florida!

Why don't we have REAL Chinese people and experts at the diplomacy table? Why did they get rid of 2 high-ranking prelates (Cardinal Zen and Archbishop Hon), and replace them with "prelate-tourists" who praise Communism? Why did an 86-year-old retired Cardinal need to fly to Rome in order to hand-deliver a letter to the Holy Father? Mind you, it's a 14-hour flight!

These professional diplomats, who AREN'T Chinese and who know little about China, are making grave decisions affecting the lives of millions of Catholics. And I for one am afraid... afraid of their foolishness and naïveté!

They wish to help us regularize our situations and aid in our evangelization efforts, yet they're taking away our moral authority. They're forcing us to follow and obey hypocritical bishops who have mistresses and fathered children, who pervert the teachings of Jesus Christ, and who kowtow to the Golden Calf.

Six years ago Rorateposted on who is allowed to sing the Passion during Holy Week. The answer, we thought, was pretty clear, but apparently not everyone agreed. Some traditional Latin Masses employed laymen to chant entire parts of the Passion, as performed via the novus ordo.

To that end, the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" was consulted on this issue. Here is the response:

To summarize, the privilege to chant the Passion begins at the diaconate level for all three parts of the Passion (except for the turba portion of the synagoga).

This new site is a comprehensive introductory resource for those interested in the celebration of the pre-1955 Holy Week liturgies. The website features free downloadable booklets, in the vernacular and Latin, with the complete ceremonies for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. These include running commentaries and historical notes throughout by Blessed Adolph Schuster. There are also Tenebrae booklets and an introductory explanation of Holy Week by Adrian Fortescue from the “Holy Week Book”.

Interested clergy will find everything they need to get started, including a full Cantus Passionis download, audio aid with accompanied notation for the Passiontide Gospel tone particular only to this traditional Holy Week, and the Fortescue ceremonial. There are also links to some articles about the 1955 reform of Holy Week.

This is a re-launch for Gregorius Magnus, which was published briefly in 2012. We hope that it will provide a truly international space for news and discussions important to the Traditional Movement, as well as an attractive platform for the FIUV.

The Institute of Catholic Culture will be hosting the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem at the Basilica of St. Mary in Alexandria, Va. this Sunday for Laetare Sunday Vespers. Vespers will be celebrated in the Extraordinary Form.

Leo Darroch has produced a substantial
and fascinating volume on the FIUV, commonly known as Una Voce International,
from its beginnings up to the end of the presidency of the late Michael Davies.
Davies’ predecessor, Eric de Savanthem, was President for 30 years, from the
early days of the organisation, so the book revolves around these two
remarkable men.

Because of the nature of the material,
the book is episodic in character. Some of these episodes are very revealing
about the state of the Church at the time they took place, so I will devote
this review to three of them.

A Letter to A Seminarian thinking of leaving the Seminary, from his Parish Priest

by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla

Note: The following is an article in epistolary form.

Henri Cartier-BressonSeminarians outside Burgos, Spain1953

Dear James:

I received your letter, and I must admit that it saddened me.I shall be sure to pray for you when I celebrate Mass.I am happy that you have not made a definite decision about whether to leave seminary.When you made the decision to enter Seminary from our parish I was—as you remember—deeply happy.I read your letter several times carefully.Some of your perceived problems are a normal part of adjusting to seminary life.But one part of your letter struck me deeply, and I quote it back to you:

I cannot be myself here in the seminary.I am always pretending to be someone else.I feel like I am playing a game with the rector and the other priests here, putting on a façade in order to please them, or so I do not get into ‘trouble’.This exhausts me especially spiritually but also physically.I came to seminary, as you know, because for me I cannot conceive of anything else I want to do except being a priest for the rest of my life.And also as you know, at the very center of that desire is my love for the Traditional Mass.It was in your parish I discovered this treasure and it was serving that Mass for two years that deepened my understanding of the priesthood and what the Mass is all about.It is that love that I cannot show here.I have to suppress my love for the Traditional Mass and never let it show, for the faculty would see that in a negative way and that would affect my future in the diocese and may even prevent me from being ordained.The other guys here who have the same love for the Traditional Mass have the common attitude to go with the current flow, keep your heard down, smile, never let them know what you are thinking until you are ordained.Then it is safe to come out of the liturgical closet so to speak.Even writing that last sentence dismays me that I should say such a thing.So I ask myself:Do I want to spend three more years not being honest about who I am and what drives me?Will not this have a bad effect on me personally and if I am ordained will not this way of living, this self-denial in a deep sense, will this not continue and make my priesthood a sham?

One of the most striking areas of rupture and discontinuity between the traditional Latin Mass and the Mass of Paul VI is to be found in the passages of Scripture read on Sundays. The annual cycle of the old Missal, embodying the practice of well over a millennium, puts before the Christian people year after year essential truths of the spiritual life and fundamentals of morality to which we must always return. The three-year cycle of the new Mass, an unprecedented novelty against the backdrop of all historic liturgical rites, brings in a greater quantity and variety of texts but, as a result, diffuses the impact and substance of the message.

It is as if the canvas on which the painting is being executed is so large and the subjects so numerous that one cannot quite make out what the painting is of. There is not enough “useful repetition” to allow the words to sink in deeply and remain in the heart, rather than passing in one ear and out the other. As a friend of mine likes to say, education involves cutting the groove many times until a lasting mark is left. The enormous contrast between the two is appreciated perhaps only by those who have regularly attended both forms of the Roman Rite over a long stretch of time.

This past week, there were two
announcements about pieces of literature that left the liberals quaking (and
complaining loudly). The first is a preface, written by Cardinal Robert Sarah,
for a new book on Communion, who called for a return to receiving Communion on
the tongue while kneeling, rather than in the hands while standing. While many
readers of this blog already follow this request, we should rejoice at this
call for greater reverence.

The second is an address,
which was given by Fr. Thomas Weinandy, whose open
letter to Pope Francis critiquing Amoris
Laetita caused him to lose his position at the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops. This address, given at the University of Notre Dame in
Australia, questioned whether the current papacy is properly following the four
marks of the Church.

Looking at highlights from these
two addresses will be a good reminder for us that Christ is the Head of His
Church, and all of us within the Church owe Him our complete and utter
obedience: as St. Paul writes in the letter to the Colossians, “He is the head
of the body, the Church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead,
that in everything he might be pre-eminent” (Col 1:18, RSV2CE).

Roberto de Mattei

Among the staunchest opponents of the Vatican Ostopolik, a figure of
remarkable cultural and moral stature should be remembered: Father Alessio
Ulisse Floridi (1930-1986).

A member of the Company of Jesus at a very young age, Father Floridi studied
at the Pontifical Russian College, where he learned Russian perfectly and, in
1949, he was ordained a priest in the Byzantine RiteHis hope was to be part of an underground
apostolate in Russia, just like some of his confreres, but his superiors wanted
him at La Civiltà Cattolica, the journal which was the pride and joy of the
Company. Father Floridi became the sovietologist par excellence of this
journal,collaborating with articles written
from first-hand reading of newspapers, journals and documents coming [directly]
from the Soviet Union. His articles rich
in notes and personal comments, were read and appreciated for their accuracy by
the Communists themselves, both in Italy and abroad.

Today I am publishing the last of the series of FIUV Position Papers. Further ones may be published as the need arises. Although we have no exhausted the possible topics for these papers, we have done enough to make clear a number of important general principles. Bringing the series to a close will also enable us to publish them as a group.

This paper is about the Sanctoral Cycle: saints days. There are some striking contrasts between the Traditional and the Novus Ordo calendars in relation to saints days, both in detail (dates being changes) and in the fundamental principles behind them.

These differences both suggest, and render problematic, attempts to make the two calendars converge, wholly or partially. This paper seeks to set out and defend the rationale of the Sanctoral Cycle of the Traditional Roman Missal.

This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. We now stand at 85 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls. Come on Fathers, let's get this to 100!

Priests: The Souls still need more of you saying Mass for them! Please email me to offer your services. There's nothing special involved -- all you need to do is offer a weekly or monthly TLM with the intention: "For the Souls enrolled in the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society." And we will always keep you completely anonymous unless you request otherwise.

How to enroll souls:please email me at athanasiuscatholic@yahoo.com and submit as follows:"Name, State, Country."If you want to enroll entire families, simply write in the email: "The Jones family, Ohio, USA". Individual names are preferred. Be greedy -- send in as many as you wish and forward this posting to friends as well.

I am happy to announce the appearance of four more titles from OS JUSTI PRESS, which republishes long out-of-print volumes of serious worth to contemporary Catholics. All are available at Amazon; the titles below are hyperlinks.

Once again, Fr. Pio Pace, an expert in Romanitas, gives us his opinion on a present topic: now, the astonishing canonization of Paul VI.

***

Paul VI: a "Pastoral" canonization?

Fr. Pio Pace

Perhaps Paul VI had remarkable and heroic virtues in his private and secret life. But, as Pope, he is the object of not little debate: he promulgated the most liberal texts of the Council (Gaudium et Spes, Unitatis Redintegratio, Nostra Aetate, Dignitatis Humanae); he led a liturgical reform that turned sacred liturgy upside down and inside out; and several other things, big and small, such as the suppression of the extremely ancient and venerable Roman Subdiaconate.

Paul VI fully embodies Vatican II. It is precisely for this reason that he has been chosen for canonization, as the Popes of the Council and post-Council, who have been canonized one after the other: John XXIII, John Paul II...

From the gospel of the Transfiguration: “ And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun and his garments became white as light.” (Mt. 17:1-2)

And from the book of Genesis: “Take your son Isaac, your only one whom, you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you.” (Gen. 22:2)

There were two on that mountain of the transfiguration with Christ: Moses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah the great prophet. They were there with the One who fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, Jesus Christ. But there was present also not in bodily form but surely spiritually the one who the Roman Canon calls Abraham, our father in faith. For the covenant God made with Abraham reached its fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. And it is the test of Abraham by God in the sacrifice of his beloved Son, Isaac, that points to in a direct line to the sacrifice of the only Son of God by God the Father which act is the definition of love.

This Monday, February 26, 2018, there will be a Solemn Requiem Mass and Absolution at the Catafalque to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Happy Valley Racecourse Fire in Hong Kong at which 670 people perished. The Mass is at the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in New York City at 7:30 PM.

Following Mass, the Sacred Ministers will change from black to violet vestments and lead the choir and people in a procession throughout the Church singing a Solemn Litany of the Saints to beseech our Lady of Mt. Carmel and the Communion of Saints to intercede for the persecuted Church in China and protect it against the attacks it faces today.

At the Requiem Mass, the choir will sing the Missa pro defunctis for six voices by Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650). The Mass is being sponsored by a family that lost five members in the tragedy.

As Lent is 1/4 over already (but who's counting?), we thought it would be of interest to share commentary from a popular handmissal on the Sundays within Lent, which are of course not part of the 40 penitential days between Ash Wednesday and Easter:

"As today is not a day of fasting, there is no collecta previous to the stational procession, this procession being a rite of a distinctly penitential character, and therefore not in keeping with the Sunday festival." - The New Roman Missal, by Father F.X. Lasance

May your Sunday be a glorious one before we resume our fasting and penance tomorrow.

It is always local situations that show how deep the problems in the Church are at the present time. The problematic issuances from Rome, Germany and Chicago are indeed disturbing, but to see how far things have gone, one must go to the local level of the Church: the diocese and the parish. Go to a typical parish Mass to see the fruit of the liturgical experiment of the post-Conciliar Church. The unmooring from the Tradition of the Church is plain to see in the carrying out of the deliberate misunderstanding of the Mass and the disappearance of reverence. Not to mention the precipitous decline in the percentage of Catholics who go to Mass regularly.

But one sees what has happened and is happening to Catholic doctrine also at the local level. I live in one of the most wealthy counties in the United States. There is also poverty in this county. But when the median family income of the county is calculated, the poverty disappears in the wash of super-affluence.

This poverty is talked about by those who are entrusted with running the government and by those running the Church. But those who run the Church understand that nothing can be done, at least at the basic level of dollars and cents, without the wealthy of Fairfield County. Nothing to be done. What they mean by “to be done” has little to do with Jesus’ directive to go out and preach the Gospel. What the hierarchy means by “to be done” is to pay attention to the assurance that the bureaucracy continues to function, much like the government in Washington D.C. in the continuous pseudo-crises of government funding.

Pope Francis‘ political collaboration with Communist
China has direct precedents in the Ostopolitik of John XXIII and Paul VI. But yesterday, just as today, Ostoplitik had
strong opponents who deserve to be remembered. One of these was the Slovakian
Bishop Pavol Hnilica (1926-2006), whom I’d like to recall, based on my own
personal memories and by referring to a precise study dedicated to his figure,
to be published shortly by Professor Emilia Hrabovec, to whom I express my gratiude
for allowing me to consult and quote from her manuscript.

The level of the order’s isolation was relaxed in the 1960s after the Second Vatican Council, a sweeping set of reforms in the Roman Catholic Church known as Vatican II. Sister Marie Aimée remembered the grille being brought down by a sister wielding an electric saw. “I said, Holy Toledo!” she recalled.

The teaching
of the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia has been the subject of a
great deal of debate since the promulgation of that document. Various
interpretations of this teaching have been presented, and the differing
interpretations have been used both to denounce the document as heretical and
to defend it as in harmony with the teaching of the Church. Pope Francis has
recently acted to clarify the meaning of the most contentious section of Amoris
laetitia through a statement in the October 2017 issue of the Acta
apostolic sedis, the journal that publishes the official acts of the Holy
See (the title of the journal is generally abbreviated as AAS). The meaning and
consequences of this clarification are of the first importance, and need to be
carefully and accurately examined.

The meaning and authority of the AAS statement

The statement
in the AAS has three components: i) a letter from Pope Francis to the bishops
of the Buenos Aires region concerning their pastoral degree on the application
of Chapter 8 of Amoris laetitia, ii) the pastoral decree itself, and
iii) a statement by Cardinal Parolin, the Secretary of State, asserting that
the Supreme Pontiff has ordered the publication of the two preceding components
in the AAS as statements of the authentic magisterium. The letter from Pope
Francis is given the title of ‘Apostolic letter’ in the AAS statement, a title
it did not bear when originally issued.

The statement
in the AAS has a high degree of authority. The term ‘authentic magisterium’ is
explained in para. 25 of the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium, and in
canon 752 of the Latin Code of Canon Law. The exercise of the authentic
magisterium is not infallible, and hence does not require the assent of faith
from Catholics, but it does require the religious submission of mind and will,
a submission that includes sincere adherence to the assertions being taught.
The covering statement by Cardinal Parolin, the publication of the above
documents in the AAS at the command of the Pope, and the new title of
‘Apostolic letter’ given to Pope Francis’s original letter to the Buenos Aires
bishops, confirm that the relevant contents of the documents are teachings of
the authentic magisterium of the Catholic Church. This is a rather roundabout
way of conveying an official teaching of the Church, sincethis teaching is given in a letter about a
letter about an apostolic exhortation, but this form of expression is not
entirely without precedent or unsuitable in itself. There are precedents for a
Pope issuing a teaching by endorsing a statement previously made by bishops. It
does however mean that the statement needs to be carefully analyzed in order to
identify the content of the teaching it conveys.

In last weekend's Catholic Herald (Feb 16)Michael Davis (not to be confused with the late, great, Michael Traherne Davies) makes an extraordinary attack on the older generation of Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass. He does so in the context of an alleged contrast with younger Traditionalists. You can read the first part of his article, or pay to read the whole thing; I include some screenshots to give a flavour.

To generalise about Traditional Catholics as 'going out of [their] way to be nasty' or tainted by 'repugnant anti-Semitism' is wearily familiar, and I would not dignify it with a response but for the fact that Davis presents himself as a 'Traditionalist' (as he puts it), and the Catholic Herald is one of the more trad-friendly Catholic newspapers. Furthermore, Davis is the paper's US Editor, on the eve of their big launch in the USA. Rorate's Twitter feed put it well: what we see is the phenomenon of the "the self-hating self-righteous not-really-trad Trad." I've discussed other examples of the type here.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx has announced that the German bishops' conference will publish a pastoral handout for married couples that allows Protestant spouses of Catholics "in individual cases" and "under certain conditions" to receive Holy Communion, provided they "affirm the Catholic faith in the Eucharist".

At Scythopolis in Palestine, St Severian, Bishop and Martyr, who was slain by the Monophysites because he opposed them so zealously.

and ...

At Damascus, St Peter Mavimenus, who said to certain Arabs who came to him in his sickness: "Every man who does not embrace the Catholic Christian faith is damned as Mohammed, your false prophet, was" and was slain by them.

Not surprisingly, these saints are absent in the new Martyrology that appeared in 2004 from the Vatican Press -- one of the last liturgical books to be "reformed."

And just at a time when we could use a few more shepherds who zealously oppose heresy, and a few more courageous men who speak the truth about Islam.

Our friends at Romanitas Press have a compelling new offering: Learn how the Church's Liturgical Year relates to you through the eyes of Franciscan spirituality with these audio recordings from the 7-volume set of Franciscan Meditations by Capuchin, Fr. Bernardin Goebel.

​Each MP3 recording features an insightful, but brief segment about a day in the Church's Liturgical Year (per the 1962 Roman calendar) and how it relates to your personal sanctification.

Want to grow in holiness through the Church's sacred liturgy but don't have much time to read? Then these audio downloads are just for you.

Today, it was reported that Pope Bergoglio announced last week in his annual Lenten meeting with priests in Rome, that Paul VI will be canonized a saint this year.

As terrifying as this is, it should come as no shock. No matter how much damage they did, no matter how many souls they lost to Hell, no matter how much they destroyed the liturgy and, with it, the Faith, one thing is clear: Vatican II is being canonized via these failed pontiffs.

Since 1983, and the dissolution of the Devil's Advocate, Catholics of good will can honestly question these canonizations. What cannot be questioned, however, is the tragedy that is the case for sainthood for Pope Pius XII.

While the post-Concilliar popes (yes, all of them), left nothing but destruction, or at best the slowing of destruction in their wakes, the Church under Pope Pacelli flourished in every category.

And so we bring you this post, from 2014, as a reminder of what the last, saintly, Pre-Concilliar Pontificate accomplished in the United States:

To Rorate's friends in Florida, I am happy to announce that I will be in Naples next weekend to give a lecture on “Reconnecting with Tradition: The Church’s Hope for the Future.”

The lecture will be held at 4:00 pm in the Great Room at the St. Laurent Condominium, 6849 Grenadier Blvd., Naples, FL, 34108. All are welcome to attend. I will be signing copies of both of my books, Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis and Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness, for any who might be interested.Following the lecture there will be an information sesson about Wyoming Catholic College as well. I would certainly enjoy meeting fellow lovers of Catholic tradition, including Rorate readers.

On Sunday I will be singing with the Schola at the 8:45 am High Mass at the FSSP apostolate Corpus Christi Chapel (located at St. Agnes Catholic Church, 7775 Vanderbilt Beach Rd., Naples, FL 34120), and again, I'd be delighted to meet anyone afterwards.

Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the
beginning of the season of Lent. The Church, in the wisdom of the old
liturgical calendar, gave us the past few Sundays to prepare ourselves for this
season of fasting, prayer, and penance. Lent is the time of the liturgical year
in which we pause and recognize our weak human nature, our inclination to sin,
and our mortality. Some will look at our rigorous sacrifices and fasting as
foolishness, given how our society is wont to pursue instant gratification.
What is it that motivates our penances? Perhaps reflecting on that question
will help us to choose penances that will deepen our spiritual lives and our
love for God.

In Question 12 of the Prima Pars of his Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas considers the knowability of God;
in other words, how does man know God, both in this life and in the next, when
he is able to see His Divine essence? In Article 6, Thomas asks whether some
will see the Divine essence more perfectly than others will. He argues in the
affirmative, stating that it is based on the intellect’s greater capacity that
will allow some to behold the vision of God more perfectly. The object—the
vision of God—will remain the same, since God does not change, but the more
perfectly an intellect shares in the light of glory, the more perfectly He will
be seen. Thomas explains:

In the past, you could find a traditional Lenten Mission at many parishes. Now, unless you are near a traditional parish, they are nearly extinct -- or worthless.

Fortunately, we are not meant to live in the past, we are meant to live in the now. And, now, we have the Internet. And there is an abundance of good on the Internet, along with the bad.

As we do every year, we bring to your attention this wonderful, traditional, five-part Lenten Mission by the holy and learned Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea. While it is not short, it does go by very quickly, and is easy to follow and understand. It's clear, concise and bold.

Our friends at Cluny Media continue to impress with their reprints of old out-of-print Catholic classics. Whatever you may think about this or that element of Louis Bouyer's writings, he was a major theologian of the 20th century, of a stature that almost no one can compare to today; he had a commitment to traditional theological principles, on the basis of which he eventually came to regret some of the progressive ideas he espoused as a younger scholar; and he did penance for his involvement with the Consilium by telling the world in his Memoirs about the mendacity of its leader and the incompetence of many of its members.

This book, Christian Initiation, is an eloquent and penetrating little book, an interesting combination of apologetics and mystagogy. Here is a summary , courtesy of the publisher.

* * *

Louis Bouyer (1913–2004) was a member of the French Oratory and one of the most respected and visionary Catholic scholars and theologians of his time. Formerly a Lutheran minister, Bouyer entered the Catholic Church in 1939. A visionary Catholic scholar and theologian, Bouyer was peer and friend of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger as well as T. S. Eliot and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Ecce ascendimus Ierosolymam, et consummabuntur omnia quæ scripta sunt per prophetas de Filio hominis. (From the Gospel for the Sunday in Quinquagesima, Luke xviii, 31: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man.)

Christianity is as old as the world; for it consists, essentially, in the idea of a God -- Creator, Legislator, and Savior -- and in a life conformable to that idea. Now, God manifested himself to the human race from the beginning under the threefold relation of Creator, Legislator, and Savior, and from the beginning, from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Jesus Christ, there have been men who lived conformably with this idea of God.

Three times before Jesus Christ, God manifested himself to men in this threefold character: by Adam, the first father of the human race; by Noah, the second father of the human race; and by Moses, the lawgiver of a People whose influence and existence have mixed them up with all the destinies of mankind.

The old liturgy continues to show how its relevance never fades, and even grows in intensity, in ways that may be surprising to us but were always foreknown to God in His Providence.

In the nineteenth century in the Western world, who would have thought that the Moslems were a particularly great threat? At that time, they were not. But today? That's a different story, as we all know. Similarly, while sin has always been dogging our steps in every era, one could not have spoken prior to the Sexual Revolution of a veritable plague of vices against the sixth commandment, including the systematic and ever-earlier loss of innocence inflicted by Satan and his busy disciples on the children of our time. If ever an age needed a saint who models innocence of life and urges us to preserve it in chastity or recover it in penance and self-control, that age would be ours.

The idea that the old liturgy was getting to be "irrelevant" and the new one is "relevant" is one of those superficial sayings that quickly withers under examination. In reality, it is quite otherwise: the old has such a rich content and durable structure that it weathers every storm and emerges with new brightness as the needs of the times shift. Well might the words of the Psalmist be applied to the usus antiquior: "Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle's." The new liturgy, in contrast, is so tethered to the narrow time-bound theories of its academic fashioners that it meets the needs of an ever-shrinking category of modern people who are not young enough to be post-modern or wise enough to be pre-modern.